!blog - corey menscher

So I got some amazing responses on my project. Everyone loved it, especially kids. Most of the reactions revolved around the stunning nature of viewing in infinite number of LEDs, but it was all positive.

The best feedback I got, however, was the fact that there was a short line to view my piece when the floor started to get crowded. Most viewers figured out the interactivity pretty quickly, but I usually had to explain it to them once. If I were to tweak the piece at all, I would try to make the touch sensors a bit more obvious. One of my original ideas was to cut the paper touch pads in the shape of a hand, but I decided against. In hindsight I think it would have made the interaction obvious, as most people tried using just their fingers to press on the rubber nubs, rather than using their whole hands.

I feel honored to have been part of the show. Here are some photos of the end result, as well as some of people viewing the piece…

Infinity Mirrored Room - LEDs Forever Photoset on Flickr

As previously promised, here’s a video of the The Naked Pixel in its flesh-colored glory…

Here are some videos from the awesome NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression)/Algorithmic Composition show last night. It was great to see the projects I’ve watched being built all semester come to fruition. Excellent work everyone!

Gian Pablo Villamil plays his Arduino synth…

Rory Nugent plays “Canon in Robot Major”…

Lesley Flanigan plays the “Speaker Synth”…

Rui Pereira plays the “Velodrum”…

“Infinity Mirrored Room - LEDs Forever” is complete! Not only that, but I made it into the 2007 Winter Show! I’m so psyched. It’s quite an honor to have a project from a foundation course accepted into the show. I just hope people like it! Here’s a video of the final product…

It’s taken me a while to get this up on blip.tv, but here’s our video assignment from a few weeks ago, “Park Chase”. The audio needs to be cleaned up in a few spots, but that’s it. Enjoy…

For my final assignment, I decided to do another audio collage using a microphone and M-Audio recorder. I spent half the day walking around and riding the subway. Around 4:45pm I wandered into the Natural History Museum, and found a goldmine of audio sweetness. So here is “Natural History”

The Naked Pixel is a Processing application that uses a Color Kinetics iColor Tile programmable RGB LED panel, just like my PComp Final. Instead of being built into a structure, however, this time it is hanging on a wall. I used Daniel Shiffman’s UDP library to talk send color information to the iColor Tile, as well as a Macbook Pro’s built-in iSight camera.

The iColor Tile is a “Naked Pixel”. It acts as a single physical 24″ x 24″ pixel of uniform color. The Naked Pixel sequentially displays an individual pixel of somewhat risque images of women and men in various states of undress. Each pixel’s color is displayed for about a second before Processing moves onto the next. This creates a varying pattern of colors that cycle in a beautiful and pleasing sequence. However, the pixel itself can be undressed. By turning out the lights, the host computer’s iSight camera detects the lack of light and “strips” the pixel of its own color. The Naked Pixel goes to Black & White, and the pixel’s most basic element…the binary representation of its color…is displayed instead.

This piece explores the boundaries of social norms. What is acceptable to view in public? Why is it generally taboo to hang large images of naked people just anywhere, whereas we can view the individual colors that comprise the very same images individually over time? Is the Naked Pixel offensive in some way? And why isn’t “undressing” the pixel unacceptable as well?

I’ll post pictures of the project running soon, but in the meantime, here’s the code!

So I’ve spent, I dunno, about 8 cumulative hours trying to get three QProx QT113 capacitive sensors to work as proximity sensors.  These are sensors that detect the capacitance of a human touch and return a binary value to indicate said touch.  (It’s exactly the same tech as the iPod touch wheel.)  They supposedly can be “tuned”, however, to read the capacitance of human presence within a few centimeters.  I need about 8cm or so.  That way when someone walks up to the box and leans in, it can sense their presence and cycle the pattern that is displayed, as well as to detect the presence of a user’s hands near the sides of the box.  Currently, it reads about a distance of about 2cm.  It’s not bad, as there are plenty of people who seem to enjoy the box’s visuals so much that they want to climb inside, but it doesn’t switch for everybody.  I’ve tried nearly everything that the datasheet recommends…from increasing the capacitance at the sensor pins via parallel capacitors, to altering the material and size of the electrode.  Nothing seems to help.  It’s driving me nuts!